AHA Presentation Slides
Video of the ISCHEMIA Results Presentation at the AHA
A Song Written by Dr. David Maron Celebrating ISCHEMIA
ISCHEMIA Trial Results
ISCHEMIA-CKD Trial Results
Video of the ISCHEMIA Results Presentation at the AHA
A Song Written by Dr. David Maron Celebrating ISCHEMIA!
ISCHEMIA included people who had an abnormal stress test showing moderate to severe ischemia of the heart. Ischemia is when there is reduced blood flow to the heart due to narrowing caused by cholesterol deposits inside heart arteries. Reduced blood flow may cause chest pain symptoms, or “angina”.
ISCHEMIA compared two standard ways to treat ischemia to see if one was better at reducing the risk of heart attack or death, or improving symptoms.
- One treatment method used medicines and lifestyle changes along with initial heart procedures consisting of cardiac catheterization followed by stent placement or surgery to improve blood flow, when feasible.
- The other treatment method also used medicines and recommended lifestyle changes. Heart procedures were only used if symptoms could not be controlled with medication.
The ISCHEMIA trial showed that heart procedures added to taking medicines and making lifestyle changes did not reduce the overall rate of heart attack or death compared with medicines and lifestyle changes alone. However, for people with chest pain symptoms, heart procedures improved symptoms better than medicines and lifestyle changes alone. The more symptomatic the patient is with chest pain to begin with, the more symptoms improved after getting a stent or bypass surgery.
These results apply to people with stable symptoms. They do not apply to people having a heart attack, when emergency stent procedures save lives.
Where to find additional information
Articles with detailed results will be published in medical journals starting in early 2020. Links to these articles will be posted on the ISCHEMIA website as they become available.
ISCHEMIA-CKD included people who had advanced kidney disease and an abnormal stress test showing moderate to severe ischemia of the heart. Ischemia is when there is reduced blood flow to the heart due to narrowing caused by cholesterol deposits inside heart arteries. Reduced blood flow may cause chest pain symptoms, or “angina”. Advanced kidney disease refers to people who are on dialysis or whose kidney function is markedly reduced.
ISCHEMIA-CKD compared two standard ways to treat ischemia to see if one was better at reducing the risk of heart attack or death, or improving symptoms.
- One treatment method used medicines and lifestyle changes along with heart procedures consisting of cardiac catheterization followed by stent placement or surgery to improve blood flow, when feasible.
- The other treatment method also used medicines and recommended lifestyle changes. Heart procedures were only used if symptoms could not be controlled with medication.
The ISCHEMIA-CKD trial showed that heart procedures added to taking medicines and making lifestyle changes did not result in a reduced rate of heart attack or death compared with medicines and lifestyle changes alone. The trial also showed that heart procedures did not reduce symptoms appreciably or improve the quality of life compared with medicines and lifestyle changes alone. These results do not apply to people having a heart attack or those with severe chest pain symptoms.
Where to find additional information
Articles with detailed results will be published in medical journals starting in early 2020. Links to these articles will be posted on the ISCHEMIA-CKD website as they become available.
ISCHEMIA & ISCHEMIA-CKD presentation slides with the results are posted on here:
ISCHEMIA Clinical Outcomes (ppt, pdf)
ISCHEMIA QOL Results (ppt, pdf)
ISCHEMIA-CKD Clinical Outcomes (ppt, pdf)
ISCHEMIA-CKD QOL Results (ppt, pdf)